


Suffer Not the Children

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Minor Character Death, Night, Post-Order 66
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-17 15:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12368346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: "The Temple has fallen. We must go now."





	Suffer Not the Children

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shiningstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiningstar/gifts).



"Come with me."

The scared faces around her all said the same thing: something had gone terribly wrong. Katooni could feel it in her bones, in her soul. As a Jedi, she should let go of her fear and hurry to investigate the awful thing she sensed happening at the ground floor of the Temple. Some of the others had already gone, and not returned. Now one of the Temple guards, her face hidden behind a mask, spoke urgently and quietly to the remaining younglings, Katooni among them.

"What's going on?" asked Helsa. Katooni took her hand and squeezed it in comfort.

The guard turned her hidden face to them. "The Temple has fallen. We must go now." She led the band of younglings out into the corridor, and down to a little-used staircase. "Stay silent," she warned them, using her yellow blade to light their way as they descended. Katooni counted steps as they went, and noticed they went below the ground floor, below the lower levels. The steps kept descending, and they followed, while above them, inside them, the lights that were their friends flickered and died.

Helsa started to cry, and she wasn't the only one.

"Quiet," said the guard. Her own voice was ragged. At last she led them to a doorway, checked the lock, and with a quick movement, cut through the latch with her lightsaber. "Through here!"

Katooni had heard only stories about the deepest levels of Coruscant. She wrinkled her nose at the smell and the fumes, but otherwise held her tongue as they walked in a cluster. After the darkness of the stairwell, even the noisome lighting seemed too bright. "Where are we going?" asked Noron, after almost an hour. They were far from the Temple, lost in streets none of them had ever seen before, following a guard whose name they didn't know.

"Can you feel what's happened?"

"Jedi are dying," Sammo said, his face tight.

"All the Jedi," said the guard. "I've felt the terrible tremors since they began. When I saw Master Drallig fall, I knew we were finished."

A wave of shock passed through the group, and they huddled closer together. Master Drallig had instructed all of the younglings in the use of their lightsabers. Only a few of them had their weapons with them now. Some, like Helsa, had been too young to construct their own.

The guard found an abandoned building, and for a moment, Katooni felt something pass from her. "You've been here before."

"Once," she said. "It is not safe, but nowhere is safe. We will gather here for now. Rest if you can."

"What about the others?" Noron asked. "We have to rescue them."

"There's no one left to be rescued."

"My friends are still alive," Katooni said, assured of the fact. "Their sleeping quarters were in level six. I could take you to them."

"I'm sorry," said the guard. "The other levels were already overrun. I wasn't sure I could get to your group."

Even as she spoke, another wave of sorrow passed through them all. Katooni lowered her own head, and refused to admit she was crying.

"There will be survivors," the guard said. "We'll attempt to make contact with them when this passes. The Temple is unsafe for now. We need to wait. The Senate will respond to this outrage. The Chancellor has long been a friend to the Jedi. They'll stop whoever has done this, and then it will be safe to return home."

"Who did it?" Sammo asked. "Who killed Master Drallig and the others?"

"Something went wrong with the clones," she said after a long time. There was something else she wasn't telling them. "I'll keep watch. You should try to sleep."

The floor was broken but not as dirty as Katooni had feared. The children curled into tangled knots of three or four each, taking comfort in this comfortless place. Katooni left Helsa in a cluster of other smaller younglings and went to sit by the guard close to the door.

"Rest, little one," she said.

"I'm not tired. I'll keep watch with you."

Despite her words, she nodded off after a while, and woke to a prod on her shoulder. The guard had removed her mask and set it aside. "I'll stick out less this way," she said. She was human, older, with steel-gray hair and eyes to match. "I woke you to tell you I'm going to find us some food. If the others wake, tell them to stay here. I won't be gone long, I hope."

Katooni nodded, and made herself stay awake. From far away, across the galaxy, she felt the sparks of other Jedi dim and go out.

The guard didn't return. Hours passed, the other children woke, and she still didn't come back with or without food. Some of the littlest younglings asked where they were, thinking their long journey in the darkness last night had been some terrible dream.

"She'll come back," Katooni said to them, over and over until she stopped believing her own words. Almost the whole day had passed, and there was no sign of their rescuer. She'd been caught or killed. At best, they were on their own now. At worst, she'd been forced to tell their mysterious enemies where she'd hidden them, and the same monsters were on their way to the old building.

Hunger gnawed them all. The building had no running water, and the best they could do for shelter was the piled rubbish outside.

"We need food," Noron said.

"She said to stay here."

Sammo said, "You know she's not coming back. We're the oldest. We have to take care of these younglings." He stood. "I'm going to see if I can find some food close by."

"You don't have any money," Katooni said.

"I've got this." He disconnected the chain around his neck. The gem had been a gift from someone. "It might buy a little."

"Go with him," Katooni told Noron. "Come back in an hour no matter what you find." The pair hurried out. She went to the other kids. "Everything is going to be fine."

She realized she didn't even know the guard's name. They'd been saved from death by a stranger, and her name would die with her. Between the hunger and the despair, she felt tears welling up again. A Jedi could afford neither. She stood.

"Everyone, we're going to practice. We're Jedi. Let's not give up on our training yet." She led them through the same morning exercises Master Yoda always taught the youngest Padawans, and she showed them the higher-level lightsaber forms she'd just begun learning. The lessons focused their attention from the gnawing in their bellies and the sorrow in their hearts.

After an hour, Noron and Sammo returned, their arms full of bread. "I got a lot of credits," Sammo said, passing out the food as well as he could. "Other stuff sounded better but this will go further." The three older children carefully stored away the extra loaves for later, wrapped in a cloak to keep the insects off.

Noron said, "There's water not far from here. We should go in small groups to not attract attention."

"We can't stay long," Sammo said, quiet enough for only the other two older children to hear. "We saw clone guards asking questions. They didn't see us, but someone will."

Her heart fell even lower. If the lowest levels of Coruscant weren't safe, where could they go?

She ate her own bread and thought. Only one conclusion presented itself. "If Jedi are being hunted, we can't be Jedi. And you're right, we can't stay in a group. Two or three kids aren't remarkable. A dozen together of different species will be noticed."

Katooni took two groups of the smaller kids to get water, keeping her head covered with her own cloak. She could pass for human if she was careful. She took them back and worried until all of the other groups made it back safely. They would have to separate. It was likely she'd never see the others again after they did.

"You'll have to take Laam," she told Sammo, and he nodded. He didn't know the other Twi'lek boy well, but from now on, they would tell anyone who met them that they were brothers. Disa was Nautolan, but she'd fare best with the two of them.

Sammo gave Noron and Katooni a few of his remaining credits. Then without looking back, he took the other two children and vanished into the night.

Noron waited another day, venturing out with their remaining money to purchase more food. He took three children with him when he left for the final time.

Katooni stayed.

She told herself that this building wasn't safe, this area wasn't safe. She told herself five children would draw too much attention. She distracted herself from both of these thoughts by running the others through more lessons, anything she could remember. She let each one handle her lightsaber in turn, learning its use, feeling its flow in their hands.

The guard didn't return, and the others never would.

She spent the last of her credits on food, and knew there would be no more. She made sure the other four ate, and cached her own portion for later. While they slept, she let the churning in her stomach keep her awake, thinking.

This part of the city was broken, forgotten. The others who made their lives here were just as broken and forgotten. Clones might ask questions, but they wouldn't stay. They had passed through here and moved on, and would not return. This building was the ruins of an apartment block. The upper floors had fallen into rubble, but enough of the remaining bottom floor had space that the children had stretched out to fill the rooms. No power, no water, but no one hunting them.

Twelve children here would be too many. Five would be a lot but she thought they might get away with it if they stayed. The power grid was still active close by. She was sure that with some work, they could get a line in here, enough to heat the rooms where they slept.

Money was the issue. Water could be obtained but food cost credits.

"Where are you going?" Helsa asked her, awake in the darkness as Katooni pulled her robe around herself.

"Out. I'll be back," she said. Helsa's eyes welled with tears and Katooni when back to her and hugged her. "I mean it. I won't be gone long."

There were other passages leading up and down to other levels of the city. Katooni found one close enough to their location that she was sure she could find her way back again. Then she climbed, keeping her head covered, until she reached two levels above. The lights were a bit brighter here. The smoke was less thick. People walked the streets around her, ignoring her as they went about their own business.

A Jedi would never dream of committing a crime. A starving girl with four other mouths to feed had powers that lent themselves very well to thievery. Even the Holonews on the screens she passed said the Jedi were no more, and who was she to argue? Katooni stole the purses of five separate people as she passed among the crowd. Even now her honesty clamored at her. She pulled the credits from each purse then dropped it where the owner had a chance of finding their identification again.

She bought food on another level before returning home, taking note of the places she went. They would have to spread far from their home if this was to work. Picking pockets was child's play, but they were children, and there were far worse lives she could lead the others into.

Helsa was still awake, waiting for her while the others slept. "Where did you get this?"

"Where I could." She hugged her friend again.

"I want to go back to the Temple."

"I am going to take care of you from now on. We are all going to take care of one another. Can you help me?"

Helsa looked scared and sad. Then she nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Let's wake them for breakfast."


End file.
